The Best Kind of People

This book made it on to my list as January's selection for the local book store book club. Given how much critical attention the novel received, and how local the author is to us, I was particularly interested in reading it. My short and sweet review: mixed.
The first half of the novel felt more to me like a primer in rape culture in a women's studies class–and I say that having taught women's studies classes. Sadie's precocious quoting of statistics, the assemblage of interest groups who see their own agendas furthered by one outcome or another in George's case, the sordid small town, upper-class WASP-y details all rang a bit forced for me–or at least tendential enough that the purpose wasn't to tell a story but to really show how rape culture operates.
The second half of the book, though, when Sadie collapses and the entire family falls apart, is a much more compelling read. The story of George's children, Andrew and Sadie, and how their father's alleged crimes and incarceration affect them, is well done. In the second half, I felt what Wittal was going for in the book.